Health and medicine are major subjects in the news, and the media play a central role in circulating medical information and establishing the cultural meaning of medicine. However, there has been relatively little scholarly attention to health and medical reporting.

Hallin proposes a framework in which health and medical journalism plays an active role in helping societies construct medical knowledge and culture.

He has written many books on the media, some of which are considered among the most influential works in comparative media research in recent decades. His topics include media and politics, media and war, media and public health, the history of journalistic professionalism, and comparative media systems, particularly in Europe and Latin America.